Black Friday Blues For Plumbers

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FORT WORTH (CBS 11 NEWS) – Black Friday is making plumbers blue. The day after Thanksgiving used to be a plumber’s dream because there were hundreds of people like Brye Kinney who found the scraps from holiday dinner creating an emergency for his family in the kitchen.

“They’re all yelling because the sink’s about to overflow,” Kinney said excitedly as he retold the story of his Thanksgiving Day. “I’m thinking, ‘I’m really not a plumber, but I’ll do my best.’ So they hand me a plunger! And the first thing I’m thinking is we don’t really need a plunger next to all our food because they’re still cooking. And before I know it I’m in plunging away! And water is going everywhere!”

Those are the types of sink overloads that would double or even triple plumber workloads on the day after Thanksgiving and it gave them some interesting discoveries in the sinks.

“I’ve seen everything from a half pound of chicken to shot glasses,” said Michael Mendoza who’s been a plumber for nearly 20 years and works with Roto Rooter in Fort Worth.

But Friday is no longer the big day it used to be for plumbers. The internet allows people to learn how to do fix-ups themselves or prevent clogs in the first place. And a new holiday tradition keeps families out of the house and the kitchen.